DENVER (KDVR) — Facing major budget shortfalls, Denver is cutting back hours and staff for its call center that assists residents with city services and looking to leverage an artificial intelligence chatbot to pick up the slack.
Denver in Mayor Mike Johnston’s proposed 2026 budget is looking to cut more than $1 million from the 311 City Services budget, most of which comes from cutting vacant call center agents positions in the Technology-Services-Department-run office. One employed call center agent was also among the cuts.
The city and county’s X page on Monday announced the new hours for the 311 phone line: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday. This is a reduction of two hours each day, as it was previously open until 7 p.m.
The city’s announcement on Monday pointed residents to use Sunny, which debuted in 2024 as the city’s “friendly chatbot that makes it easy to access city services.”
In Johnston’s initial letter in September opening the budget for consideration, he said a specific area of improvement for the city would be to “leveraging our new Sunny chatbot, which is available 24/7 in 72 languages by text and online” to allow the call center to close earlier.
According to the city’s website, Sunny uses information from the website itself to answer resident questions about city services like meetings, events, trash collection, parking and permits. Sunny can also be used to report neighborhood issues and other problems with things like heating or electricity.
Johnston wants Denver to be ‘most forward-thinking AI city’
The push to use Sunny as 311’s hours and staff are scaled back comes a week after Denver hosted the second annual DenAI Summit and Johnston named a new Chief AI Officer for the city.
Suma Nallapati, the city’s chief information officer, will now have the title of chief AI and information officer.
“Denver is positioning itself as the nation’s most forward-thinking AI city,” Johnston said in a press release announcing the change. “Suma has been a visionary leader in technology, and with this expanded role, she will ensure that AI is not only effective but also ethical, inclusive, and deeply human-centered.”
Nallapati was at the head of city AI initiatives like Sunny and the DenAI Summit, which at its debut last year was the first city-led AI conference in the U.S., according to the press release.
Among Nallapati’s focuses in the new role, according to the press release, will be:
- Developing and implementing Denver’s AI strategy, including standards for governance and equity.
- Coordinating AI projects and tools across all city departments and agencies.
- Expanding Denver’s AI ecosystem through partnerships with vendors and universities.
- Integrating AI into core city services like permitting, emergency dispatch, public safety, and customer service.
- Championing transparency and public trust by publishing dashboards and engaging with communities on the ethical use of AI.
Denver’s 311 service assists in more than 40,000 interactions per month and has as of August assisted in 347,261 calls or interactions this year so far.
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